


Stolen Moments

by neverminetohold



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Past Lives, Romance, Slash, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-22 11:19:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9605564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverminetohold/pseuds/neverminetohold
Summary: 'Driving with Ardyn' ~ The Fangirl Edition: "You might find the cab fare to be more than you bargained for."





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shadow_lover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_lover/gifts).



"Allow me to do the honor of assigning your driver," Ardyn said, his finger rising to point without even the pretense of deliberation. "I choose you."  
  
Noctis crossed his arms in front of his chest, using the movement to conceal one of the Crownsguard's hand signals to order the others to stand down. It came just in time to stop a glowering Gladio from interfering.  
  
"I don't know." Noctis let his hand trail over the sun-warmed hood. "Your dear old thing looks pretty comfy. How about I drive with you?"  
  
Ardyn met his challenge with an amused smile that lent his amber eyes a wicked gleam. "You might find the cab fare to be more than you bargained for."  
  
"I'm willing to take that risk."  
  
"Then who am I to try and change your mind?" It was a rhetorical question, as Ardyn slipped into the driver's seat without further argument. "Please, do get in."  
  
Walking over to the passenger side, Noctis was prepared for Ignis' firm grip above his elbow, steering him towards the Regalia and thus out of hearing range. Prompto was fiddling with his camera out of nervous habit, while Gladio positioned himself to shield them all from Ardyn's view.  
  
"Are you quite certain of the wisdom of your decision?" Ignis inquired with a pointed look and raised eyebrow that made an eloquent case for his misgivings on the matter.  
  
"He's right, Noct," Prompto chimed in. "You can't trust that guy! What happened to watching our backs?"  
  
"What he said," Gladio added, glaring at a pair of chatting tourists that had ventured too close for his liking.  
  
"I don't," Noctis snapped, annoyed that they would ever think him so gullible. "So it's best to keep a close eye on him. Besides, anything goes wrong, I can warp out - unlike you guys."  
  
"Very well."  
  
"What?! But --"  
  
"Noct has made his decision," Ignis interrupted, showing himself to be completely unfazed by the outlandish grimaces Prompto pulled for being brushed off. "As such, we best not keep him waiting."  
  
Unwilling to waste any more time, Noctis jogged over to the purple muscle car with its softly purring engine and settled into the leather seat. "All set."  
  
"Then let us be off."  
  
XXX  
  
Noctis watched both Lestallum and the Regalia shrink to tiny specks in the rearview mirror and exhaled slowly. Muscles that had been tense for so long that he had stopped to notice the strain finally relaxed.  
  
For a moment, he just sat still, enjoying the scenery that flashed past with its rolling hills and grazing spiracorn herds and the flaming Disc looming in the background. It felt like freedom, the azure sky above, the warm wind ruffling through his hair and tugging at his clothes -- and every reason to lie and pretend left miles behind in the dust.  
  
"I'm glad you showed up when you did. Ignis' mother hen tendencies have reached critical levels ever since the headaches. And don't get me started on snap-happy Prompto or Gladio's outdoor fetish."  
  
Ardyn shook his head as if to admonish him, but made a sympathetic noise instead. "What an awful thing to say about your most dear and faithful retainers."  
  
Noctis snorted. "Watchdogs, more like. As if Gentiana and her pets stalking me were not bad enough."  
  
"All according to plan," Ardyn reminded him. He shifted gear and changed the lane, leaving a dark trail of burned rubber on the asphalt. "For an angler, you do make for an excellent lure."  
  
"Thanks, I guess," Noctis said with a grin. He knew full well that he had the easier part to play. "And you got that Cauthess blockade up quick."  
  
"Who cares for the chains of commanding, if one can instead rely on a network of strategically placed friends?"  
  
"And Ravus?"  
  
"Delightfully tortured by his sister's impending doom," Ardyn reported with a smile that lacked all humor but brimmed with both malicious pleasure and a detached sort of sympathy, "and thus occupied."  
  
Noctis felt his lips curl in disgust even as he tried to fake cool disinterest. "Those two are all about duty."  
  
Which was no wonder with the Five pulling the strings through all the tools at their disposal, be it the Crystal, the Ring of the Lucii - or their own 'mortal' incarnations like Gentiana, who had been busy weaving connections. Like having Prompto care for Pryna and thus laying the groundwork for their friendship, since down the road, Noctis would need the barcode he possessed to infiltrate Niflheim facilities. Or the whole setup with the assassination attempt and meeting Luna of Tenebrae, his devoted never-to-be-wife and Oracle...  
  
Occupied with his gloomy thoughts as he was, it took Noctis a moment to notice that Ardyn had slowed down and left the highway via the Cauthess-Coernix Station exit.  
  
"I take it I praised you too soon?"  
  
"Ravus is trying so hard. We should at least afford him the illusion that his efforts are not in vain," Ardyn said with a shrug. "Besides, your friends deserve their due punishment for annoying you so."  
  
Because Ardyn was otherwise the picture of self-restraint and totally above toying with them just for fun and sport, Noctis thought and rolled his eyes, even as he drawled, "My hero."  
  
The muscle car went over the curb with a gentle bump then came to a stop parked next to a caravan that a handwritten sign declared available for the night. A few tourists and commuters milled about the service area, listening to the radio newscast, eating fast food dripping with grease and ketchup or doing some shopping for the road.  
  
Noctis let the car door fall shut with a sigh and stretched his legs, struggling to settle back into a mindset where Ardyn wasn't his partner in crime but sworn enemy instead.  
  
Ardyn watched the road, standing out like a sore thumb with his height and flamboyant manner, that the many layers of his garments only served to highlight. "The Regalia has almost caught up."  
  
"Figures."  
  
It wouldn't do to sound like a needy girlfriend - he had his 'kingly' pride, no matter what Gladio liked to insinuate - but here they got to finally meet outside of the realm of dreams and spent some time together... Well, accepting that their stolen moment was over already was a bitter pill to swallow.  
  
"Noctis?"  
  
He was pretty sure he hadn't actually pouted, but now Ardyn gave him _the look_. The one that said he knew every thought that crossed Noctis' mind, every emotion that moved him. Which he did - it came with the special nature of their bond.  
  
"I just wish we had more...," Noctis trailed off, because he could feel it: 'time' had just ceased to exist.  
  
It was like a pulse, a ripple of magic that spread through the atmosphere to freeze everything in place - the birds in the sky, the barking dog straining against its leash, the man filling the tank of his rusty van, the giggling couple coming out of the store - all stuck between heartbeats, in that very second. Smells and sounds and colors followed, drained away, until all but the two of them was reduced to shades of gray and cold, sterile nothing.  
  
"Your wish is my command," Ardyn said with a playful smile and pulled him into a loose hug. "Was it this you had in mind?"  
  
Noctis lost his answer in the warm hands that caressed and cupped his face, tilted it up into a soft brushing of lips with just a hint of rough stubble, and hot breath that mingled as their slick tongues met. It was gentle and sweet, and he felt Izunia's memories rise to the fore and simmer underneath his skin.  
  
Noctis swallowed Ardyn's surprised moan as he took over and pulled him closer, rising on his toes, chasing the familiar taste of him - until it turned to something acidic and vile that rushed down his throat in searing agony, like a creature with a will of its own.  
  
The Crystal's magic recoiled from the corruption that clawed its way towards his heart. His life being in danger, it fought back, locking them in a cycle of absolute, opposing forces that tried to consume each other in a clash of radiant blue and red light; hurting them both.  
  
"Damn it!"  
  
Noctis managed to jerk away, breaking the contact, but refused to let go despite the pain that continued to wreck him. And why should he have? Unlike Izunia, who had been betrayed by his own brother and lain dying, ignorant of the truth and thus terrified of what Ardyn had become, Noctis did know the whole story and had made his choice. - And besides, this was hardly the first time it had happened.  
  
So he held on to what others would have feared and abhorred as a nightmarish vision, one of too pale skin with twitching and bulging black veins, unafraid of the thin trickle of sentient darkness that oozed from the corner of Ardyn's mouth and poison-yellow eyes.  
  
Abruptly, the mask of humanity was back in place as Ardyn regained control.  
  
Naturally, he would would be the first to recover from the backlash, seeing as he contained millions of daemons within the prison of his body and had been their jailer since before the fall of Solheim.  
  
"Always trying to prove something." Ardyn sighed and shook his head with fond exasperation. "Are you unharmed?"  
  
"Yeah." Noctis licked his swollen lips and grimaced as the blood began to pound in his temples, his magic working hard to try and expel the 'infection'. "That little bit of darkness won't hurt me."  
  
"That may be true," Ardyn allowed, "and yet, where you are concerned I find myself unwilling to take that kind of risk."  
  
Feeling flattered despite himself, Noctis did not protest as he was pulled close again and Ardyn bent down until their foreheads touched. A crimson flame sparked, its heat washing over them both as the intent of healing and strain on his power drew the Infernian's attention. - Noctis could almost see the Astral's disgusted scowl at their antics.  
  
"Blessed Stars of life and light, deliver us from darkness' blight," Ardyn intoned, though for a reverent prayer, it sounded rather half-hearted and bored.  
  
Nevertheless, with Ifrit on their side, the Oracle's ritual worked like a charm. There was a short instant where the world seemed to drop away into total darkness, and Noctis could feel how the fragment that had tried to fester within his body was ensnared and instead absorbed by Ardyn.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"You are welcome." Ardyn doffed his quickly conjured fedora with a flourished bow, as if the cleansing had been a mere parlor trick. "I fear it may be quite the anticlimactic end for our little sojourn, but..."  
  
"Yeah, time to face the music."  
  
Noctis steeled himself and moved away, down along the short sidewalk to give the impression of having been eagerly waiting for his friends to show up and free him of Ardyn's questionable company.  
  
"We will meet again tonight," Ardyn reminded him. "Once upon a dream, my sweet prince."  
  
Noctis nodded, not looking back. He heard the snap of fingers and time began to flow again, with everyone carrying on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. And there was the Regalia, with Ignis behind the wheel, a worried looking Prompto chewing his ear off, and Gladio making good use of the extra leg room.  
  
All was right in Eos again. -- At least until the moment when he would show them just how wayward their precious prince and Chosen King had truly become.  
  
Noctis could hardly wait.


End file.
